On September 26th 2008 the Quebec Ministry of Education announced that it would be removing all oversight on the level of fees that university's can charge international students studying in most faculties.

This is the first time in the provinces history that the government has abandoned its responsibility to ensure that students across Quebec have equal access to a university education no matter where they study. This deregulation will lead to massive tuition increases that will cause undue stress on the students that still choose to study in Quebec. This policy will rob us of the many benefits international students bring to the province, as many will choose to study elsewhere. At the same time it will cause a homogenization of our campuses as the number of students coming from developing countries sharply decreases.

International students bring cultural diversity to our campuses, benefits to the local economy and allow Canadian students to build global networks. 70% of these students will stay in the country after they graduate and will go on to form a large part of the backbone of Quebec's economy for years to come.

While tuition fees have been rising, the Quebec government has been slashing funding to education. Provincial expenditures on post-secondary education as a percent of GDP are $1.8 billion less than they were in 1993. As a result our universities are under funded by over $400 million. The Quebec government has the money to properly fund post-secondary education but chooses not to. In 2007 the government cut taxes by $950 million. This money could have fully addressed the underfunding of our universities with hundreds of millions left over to put into health care and other social programs.

"I call on the Minister of Education to stop the deregulation of international tuition fees, reduce those fees and reinvest in post-secondary education"

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The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) is the largest student organization in Canada. It includes over 80 university and college student organizations with more than 500,000 members across the country.

The Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) brings together 15 member associations and more than 120,000 student members in Quebec.